Zamarin Wahdat
“ON YOUR RADAR” IS A WEEKLY GRAD FILM NEWS SEGMENT THAT FEATURES A STUDENT PICKED AT RANDOM.
ZAMARIN WAHDAT IS CURRENTLY A 3RD YEAR STUDENT AT GRAD FILM. WE ASKED HER A FEW QUESTIONS AND HERE’S WHAT SHE HAD TO SAY:
Where do you consider home and what is it like there?
Home.
I remember my first home. It was a big apartment complex, with long corridors, a shared community kitchen and a lot of other kids from different countries. We all spoke in different languages. But when you play you don’t need words. We created our language in our own world. A place in between.
This was back in Hamburg, Germany. The town I grew up in. My family left Afghanistan when I was very young and this was our first home after a year long journey. Growing up in two different cultures that could not be more opposite, I learned from a young age on how to transition from one world to the other.
For me home is my mother’s smell. Home is my father’s hand resting on my forehead when I have a fever.
What or who is inspiring you right now and why?
Henri Cartier Bresson - the founder of street photography. There is something about photography I find very human. Holding a camera allows one to slow down and observe the environment and its people to the smallest details. Sometimes that ends up with a lot of waiting. And then there is this moment, it can be a small simple gesture and everything falls into place. You press the shutter and capture this moment forever.
For me photography is writing with the camera. That is why I am drawn to cinematography. Translating words into images. Adapting someone else's point of view, by keeping your own.
As fundamentally it is about observing and listening to your surroundings and the people around you. It is in the everyday that I get inspired. If you listen carefully enough, there is a story hidden on every street corner, in each human being.
What has been your most rewarding experience at NYU Tisch Grad Film so far?
Getting introduced to the foley room. If it were not for cinematography I would spend most of my time recording sound effects.
That is to say being at Tisch allowed me to learn every aspect of filmmaking and to take into account each department. That is the foundation of a good collaboration. To fall in love with the process, to allow yourself to make mistakes, to fix these mistakes together, to laugh about them and ultimately to learn.
Being able to collaborate with very talented classmates and friends, to be guided by our mentors in a very honest and nourishing way, allowed me to grow as a filmmaker and cinematographer.
“If you want to walk fast, walk alone, but if you want to get far walk with others.”
-African Proverb-